Irreversibility for all bound entangled states

We derive a new inequality for entanglement for a mixed four-partite state. Employing this inequality, we present a one-shot lower bound for entanglement cost and prove that entanglement cost is strictly larger than zero for any entangled state. We demonstrate that irreversibility occurs in the process of formation for all nondistillable entangled states. In this way we solve a long standing problem of how "real" is entanglement of bound entangled states. Using the new inequality we also prove the impossibility of local cloning of a known entangled state.     

Bound entanglement provides convertibility of pure entangled states

I show that two distant parties can transform pure entangled states to arbitrary pure states by stochastic local operations and classical communication (SLOCC) at the single copy level, if they share bound entangled states. This is the effect of bound entanglement since this entanglement processing is impossible by SLOCC alone. A similar effect of bound entanglement exists in three qubits where two incomparable entangled states of GHZ (Greenberger, Horne, and Zeilinger) and W can be interconverted. In general, multipartite settings composed by N distant parties, all N-partite pure entangled states are interconvertible by SLOCC with the assistance of bound entangled states with positive partial transpose.     

Optimal entanglement criterion for mixed quantum states

We develop a strong and computationally simple entanglement criterion. The criterion is based on an elementary positive map Phi which operates on state spaces with even dimension N > or = 4. It is shown that Phi detects many entangled states with a positive partial transposition (PPT) and that it leads to a class of optimal entanglement witnesses. This implies that there are no other witnesses which can detect more entangled PPT states. The map Phi yields a systematic method for the explicit construction of high-dimensional manifolds of bound entangled states.     

How the Hawking effect and prepared states affect entanglement distillability of Dirac fields

How the Hawking effect and the prepared states influence the entanglement distillability of Dirac fields in the Schwarzschild spacetime is studied by using the Werner states which are composed of the maximum or generic entangled states. It is found that the states are entangled when the parameter of the Werner states, F  , satisfies τ<F?1$\tau <F?1$ in which τ is influenced both by the Hawking temperature of the black hole and energy of the fields. It is also shown that although the parameter of the generic entangled states, α, affects the entanglement, it does not change the range of the parameter, F, where the states are entangled for the case of generic entangled states.     

Entanglement detection by local orthogonal observables

We propose a family of entanglement witnesses and corresponding positive maps that are not completely positive based on local orthogonal observables. As applications the entanglement witness of a 3x3 bound entangled state [P. Horodecki, Phys. Lett. A 232, 333 (1997)] is explicitly constructed and a family of dxd bound entangled states is introduced, whose entanglement can be detected by permuting local orthogonal observables. The proposed criterion of separability can be physically realized by measuring a Hermitian correlation matrix of local orthogonal observables.     

Entanglement witnesses and geometry of entanglement of two-qutrit states

We construct entanglement witnesses with regard to the geometric structure of the Hilbert-Schmidt space and investigate the geometry of entanglement. In particular, for a two-parameter family of two-qutrit states that are part of the magic simplex, we calculate the Hilbert-Schmidt measure of entanglement. We present a method to detect bound entanglement which is illustrated for a three-parameter family of states. In this way, we discover new regions of bound entangled states. Furthermore, we outline how to use our method to distinguish entangled from separable states.     

Unextendible Product Bases,Uncompletable Product Bases and Bound Entanglement

We report new results and generalizations of our work on unextendible product bases (UPB), uncompletable product bases and bound entanglement. We present a new construction for bound entangled states based on product bases which are only completable in a locally extended Hilbert space. We introduce a very useful representation of a product basis, an orthogonality graph. Using this representation we give a complete characterization of unextendible product bases for two qutrits. We present several generalizations of UPBs to arbitrary high dimensions and multipartite systems. We present a sufficient condition for sets of orthogonal product states to be distinguishable by separable superoperators. We prove that bound entangled states cannot help increase the distillable entanglement of a state beyond its regularized entanglement of formation assisted by bound entanglement.     

Activating distillation with an infinitesimal amount of bound entanglement

We show that bipartite quantum states of any dimension, which do not have a positive partial transpose (NPPT), become 1-distillable when one adds an infinitesimal amount of bound entanglement. To this end we investigate the activation properties of a new class of symmetric bound entangled states of full rank. It is shown that in this set there exist universal activator states capable of activating the distillation of any NPPT state. The result shows that even a small amount of bound entanglement can be useful for quantum information purposes.     

Strategies for Positive Partial Transpose (PPT) States in Quantum Metrologies with Noise

Quantum metrology overcomes standard precision limits and has the potential to play a key role in quantum sensing. Quantum mechanics, through the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, imposes limits on the precision of measurements. Conventional bounds to the measurement precision such as the shot noise limit are not as fundamental as the Heisenberg limits, and can be beaten with quantum strategies that employ ‘quantum tricks’ such as squeezing and entanglement. Bipartite entangled quantum states with a positive partial transpose (PPT), i.e., PPT entangled states, are usually considered to be too weakly entangled for applications. Since no pure entanglement can be distilled from them, they are also called bound entangled states. We provide strategies, using which multipartite quantum states that have a positive partial transpose with respect to all bi-partitions of the particles can still outperform separable states in linear interferometers.     

Are the laws of entanglement theory thermodynamical?

We argue that on its face, entanglement theory satisfies laws equivalent to thermodynamics if the theory can be made reversible by adding certain bound entangled states as a free resource during entanglement manipulation. Subject to plausible conjectures, we prove that this is not the case in general, and discuss the implications of this for the thermodynamics of entanglement.     

Faithful Squashed Entanglement

Squashed entanglement is a measure for the entanglement of bipartite quantum states. In this paper we present a lower bound for squashed entanglement in terms of a distance to the set of separable states. This implies that squashed entanglement is faithful, that is, it is strictly positive if and only if the state is entangled.     

Minimizing the loss of entanglement under dimensional reduction

We investigate the possibility of transforming, under local operations and classical communication, a general bipartite quantum state on a d_A x d_B tensor-product space into a final state in 2 x 2 dimensions, while maintaining as much entanglement as possible. For pure states, we prove that Nielsens theorem provides the optimal protocol, and we present quantitative results on the degree of entanglement before and after the dimensional reduction. For mixed states, we identify a protocol that we argue is optimal for isotropic and Werner states. In the literature, it has been conjectured that some Werner states are bound entangled and in support of this conjecture our protocol gives final states without entanglement for this class of states. For all other entangled Werner states and for all entangled isotropic states some degree of free entanglement is maintained. In this sense, our protocol may be used to discriminate between bound and free entanglement.Received: 21 January 2004, Published online: 2 March 2004PACS: 03.67.Mn Entanglement production, characterization, and manipulation - 42.50.Dv Nonclassical states of the electromagnetic field, including entangled photon states; quantum state engineering and measurements - 03.65.Ud Entanglement and quantum nonlocality (e.g. EPR paradox, Bells inequalities, GHZ states, etc.)     

Aspects of Generic Entanglement

We study entanglement and other correlation properties of random states in high-dimensional bipartite systems. These correlations are quantified by parameters that are subject to the ``concentration of measure' phenomenon, meaning that on a large-probability set these parameters are close to their expectation. For the entropy of entanglement, this has the counterintuitive consequence that there exist large subspaces in which all pure states are close to maximally entangled. This, in turn, implies the existence of mixed states with entanglement of formation near that of a maximally entangled state, but with negligible quantum mutual information and, therefore, negligible distillable entanglement, secret key, and common randomness. It also implies a very strong locking effect for the entanglement of formation: its value can jump from maximal to near zero by tracing over a number of qubits negligible compared to the size of the total system. Furthermore, such properties are generic. Similar phenomena are observed for random multiparty states, leading us to speculate on the possibility that the theory of entanglement is much simplified when restricted to asymptotically generic states. Further consequences of our results include a complete derandomization of the protocol for universal superdense coding of quantum states.     

Detection of Tripartite Genuine Entanglement by Two Bipartite Entangled States

There are practical motivations to construct genuine tripartite entangled states based on the collective use of two bipartite entangled states. Here, the case that the states are two‐qubit Werner states is considered. The intervals of parameters of two‐qubit Werner states are revealed such that the tripartite state is genuinely entangled. Furthermore, we also investigate the lower bound of genuine multipartite entanglement concurrence for tripartite qudit states. Several examples are given to show the effectiveness of the lower bound.     

Entanglement criteria and full separability of multi-qubit quantum states

We introduce an entanglement criterion to exclude full separability of quantum states. We present numerical evidence that the criterion is necessary and sufficient for the class of GHZ diagonal three-qubit states and estimate the volume of bound entangled states within this class. Finally, we extend our approach to bound entangled states which are not GHZ diagonal.     

Experimental unconditional preparation and detection of a continuous bound entangled state of light

Among the possibly most intriguing aspects of quantum entanglement is that it comes in free and bound instances. The existence of bound entangled states certifies an intrinsic irreversibility of entanglement in nature and suggests a connection with thermodynamics. In this Letter, we present a first unconditional, continuous-variable preparation and detection of a bound entangled state of light. We use convex optimization to identify regimes rendering its bound character well certifiable, and continuously produce a distributed bound entangled state with an extraordinary and unprecedented significance of more than 10 standard deviations away from both separability and distillability. Our results show that the approach chosen allows for the efficient and precise preparation of multimode entangled states of light with various applications in quantum information, quantum state engineering, and high precision metrology.     

Thermal entanglement versus mixture in a spin chain: Generation of maximally entangled mixed states

We study the two-body entanglement and mixture in a three-qubit XXZ spin chain in thermal equilibrium state at temperature T with an external magnetic field B. The effects of the magnetic field, the anisotropy and the temperature on the entanglement and mixture are considered. We show that the ground states in this system are fully characterized and distinguished by both entanglement and mixture. Thermal entanglement versus the mixture of all two-spin states is investigated. All pairwise states provide an upper bound on the entanglement for a fixed mixture, and some part of the boundary reaches the boundary allowed by physics. As a result, maximally entangled mixed states can be generated by controlling magnetic field and temperature. Especially, in the ground state of the whole system, the explicit forms of maximally entangled mixed states are given. The results provide a new way to generate maximally entangled mixed states and control entanglement.     

Asymptotic manipulations of entanglement can exhibit genuine irreversibility

It is commonly believed that distillation of entanglement can be, in general, irreversible. Perhaps the strongest evidence is constituted by the existence of the bound entangled states. However, even a single example of state exhibiting this irreversibility has not been found so far. We show that for a family of states the process of distillation of entanglement is truly irreversible. These states have a nonzero amount of bound entanglement and, at most, a very small amount of free entanglement.     

Bound entanglement and teleportation for arbitrary bipartite systems

We construct bound entangled states that are entangled but from which no entanglement can De olstilled It all parues are allowed only by performing local operations and classical communications. Moreover, as applications, a detailed example is presented. This example can illuminate that the fidelity of transmission using a bound entangled state is not bigger than a classical scheme.     

Experimental bound entanglement in a four-photon state

Bound entanglement is central to many exciting theoretical results in quantum information processing, but has thus far not been experimentally realized. In this work, we consider a one-parameter family of four-qubit Smolin states. We experimentally produce these states in the polarization of four optical photons produced from parametric down-conversion. Within a range of the parameter, we show that our states are entangled and undistillable, and thus bound entangled. Using these bound-entangled states we demonstrate entanglement unlocking.